Im led to believe only Flaggy and Christies Beach voted against.
Christies Beach did not vote against, they just didn't vote.
There was not much point, the board had decided they wanted this in place so would have overruled the clubs to make sure it happened anyway, similar to another recent vote, had the majority of clubs not blindly gone along with it.
Sadly this is another effort to "dumb-down" our game to cater for the lowest denominator. We apparently need to make it easier for the lesser kids to get a kick, not that removing tackling, smothering, spoiling and shepherding is enough, we now need to reduce the number of players on the field so as to reduce the potential opponents.
What we get our kids playing on a Sunday morning is not our game, we have taken the contest out of it. We are not teaching young players how to win the ball in a contest, instead it will be given to them if it doesn't just happen to fall into their arms. This morning I saw numerous occasions where a player would take possession of the ball in the forward lines and would just weave his way past the players until he got to the goal line and tapped it through for a not counted goal (his opponents not allowed to do anything to stop him). The priority at the moment is to eliminate any defensive component of the game, on the off chance that a child might get upset because he too was not allowed to run into an open goal so that he can have his turn at kicking a goal.
The kids progressing to U/14s and onwards (if they have not got bored by that stage) do not have any instinct to go for a smother or a shepherd, but worst of all they have no sense how to protect themselves when going for the ball.
Our game is a physical, collision based game, we should stop pretending it is something it is not.
One of the justifications on Monday night was that it was due to the threat of soccer that we need to modify rules.
Why? What is the threat?
If we continue to try to make our sport more like soccer, why will the kids bother playing it when they can play the genuine article, with much greater career paths if they are good enough.
The kids want to play what they see on TV, the junior product we offer up is so far detached from that that it is almost unrecognisable - well the ball is similar and they kick and handball the same (but not too far).
We have good numbers at the moment, this is apparently aimed at increasing retention of the kids who lose interest because they find the game difficult. How many of the kids who are not really interested are going to go on to play senior football? Why do we modify the game for the kids who genuinely want to play the game just to cater for kids who do not really want to be there?
Anyone who has any interest in the state of junior football should read this: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/executive-living/equal-playing-field-makes-us-all-losers/story-e6frg9zo-1226650933850?nk=68e2444a758b3535542ad30432a85482